The 1950s were transition years for Wasp. The "Mighty Stinger" shrugged off her old style by replacing the twice-smashed open bow with a new hurricane bow and adding an angled flight deck to better suit the jet aircraft of the modern, post WW II Navy. Wasp started the 1950s in mothballs as CV-18, then spent some of her best years as CVA-18, and ended the decade as CVS-18.

The photo came by way of shipmates Gene Dougherty and Conrad Strub.

Click on each image to get a bigger and better view.

 

This is one of Gene's favorite photos. It shows AD-1's lined up for take off on Wasp's flight deck. They took off right from this position, one after another, without the aid of catapults.	Conrad wrote a note on the back of this photo a long time ago. It reads: "Manning the rail and gun salute in honor of President Magsaysag of the Philippines." He noted that Wasp was awaiting the arrival of the President of the Philippines to review the crew. "Click" this one for sure. This shot was taken in Manila Bay on March 12, 1954, and is one of my favorite photos of Wasp.
Wasp and her straight flight deck is coming right at you in this photo. This scan doesn't capture the photo's detail of Wasp, the sea, and the aircraft, not to mention crew members sunning on the flight deck and catwalk.	A high altitude shot of Wasp, the "flat top," near the end of her straight flight deck days, underway in 1954.
An F9F-2 Panther (VF-52?) waits its turn to be catapulted from Wasp before the angle-deck was installed.	If you could hear these AD-1's fly by today, it'd make your heart throb. The bold sound was a deep, powerful rumble that could make my "innards" tremble. They were still in use during the late 1960s when I left the Navy. Look closely, you might notice the extended tail hooks as they posed for the photographer.
"Three Point Landing" - The pilot of this AD-1 made it home all right. I'll bet he had a little explaining to do ....	Two F2H-2 Banshees fly by Wasp during a far east cruise.
Look at the duds on this pilot. The photo shows that this is likely LCDR L.E. Budnick. He is wearing either an anti-G (gravity) suit or what we used to call a "poopie suit," a one-piece rubberized suit designed to keep aircrew alive in the cold Atlantic long enough to be rescued (if the rescuers were real quick). Did anyone ever tell these guys who or what was going to save them from the poopie suits?	Two F9F-2 Panthers cruising along with Mother Wasp. You can see a whole herd of them on the flight deck.
A couple of Wasp's new F9F-6 Cougars (or Coogars) whiz past home.	"Sixes Ready to Go." These F9F-6's even park in formation. Amazing.

 

Gene Dougherty was instrumental in getting these Wasp pages put up on the Internet and he contributed the first photos for the website. He wrote:

"I never tired of flight ops. I worked in Air Ops and one of our duties was manning sound-powered phones from a perch on the 0-7 level. There were three or four of us who rotated at that position and we couldn't wait our turn to come up. As exciting as it was to watch the jets being catapulted off, my favorite was watching those AD's roll down the flight deck, always wondering if they were going to get airborne when they ran out of deck. They always did."

Conrad Strub was a Photographers Mate on Wasp at the same time as Gene. Conrad likely took some of the photos you see in these "50's" pages, but he's not saying much about his favorites.